Fingerprinting Physical Items to Mint NFT&#39;s

ABSTRACT

Fingerprinting physical items to mint NFTs is described. One or more features of a physical item are captured using a fingerprint capture system of a client device, and a fingerprint of the physical item is generated using the captured features of the physical item. The fingerprint of the physical item is provided to an authentication service to verify that the physical item corresponds to an authentic physical item by matching the fingerprint of the physical item to distinguishing features of the authentic physical item. Responsive to verification by the authentication service, a digital twin NFT is minted on a blockchain using the matched fingerprint. A combined listing for the physical item and the digital twin NET is then generated on a listing platform.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 17/493,062, filed Oct. 4, 2021, entitled“Fingerprinting Physical Items to Mint NFT's”, the entire disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Advances in technology, such as dramatic increases in computing powerfor smaller and smaller devices and development of more user-friendlytools for creating digital content, have led to the proliferation ofdigital content. Many creators of and/or persons responsible for populardigital content may want to receive a benefit for their role in makingsuch digital content popular. In other words, they wish to have thisdigital content treated as an asset—a “digital asset.” Non-fungibletokens (NFTs) are one mechanism that enable digital content to betreated as assets, and do so by programmatically encoding a uniqueidentity of an original digital asset which distinguishes it from copiesof the asset. By using NFTs, a provenance of the digital asset is alsotracked—a transfer of the digital asset cannot occur, due toprogrammatic features of NFTs, without the transfer being digitallyrecorded. Because of this ability to uniquely identify an asset fromother assets and because of the functionality to record everytransaction involving the asset, developments are being made to use NFTsin connection with physical items, e.g., luxury goods. In contrast topurely digital assets, though, the transfer of valuable physical itemsas a result of a transaction poses vastly different problems.

SUMMARY

To overcome these problems, fingerprinting physical items to mint NFTsis leveraged. One or more features of a physical item are captured usinga fingerprint capture system of a client device, and a fingerprint ofthe physical item is generated using the captured features of thephysical item. The fingerprint of the physical item is provided to anauthentication service to verify that the physical item corresponds toan authentic physical item by matching the fingerprint of the physicalitem to distinguishing features of the authentic physical item.Responsive to verification by the authentication service, a digital twinNET is minted on a blockchain using the matched fingerprint. A combinedlisting for the physical item and the digital twin NET is then generatedon a listing platform.

This Summary introduces a selection of concepts in a simplified formthat are further described below in the Detailed Description. As such,this Summary is not intended to identify essential features of theclaimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid indetermining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment in an exemplaryimplementation that is operable to employ techniques described herein.

FIG. 2 depicts an example of a system to fingerprint physical items tomint NFTs.

FIGS. 3A-3H depict an example of various user interfaces output in anexample scenario of fingerprinting a physical item to mint a digitaltwin NET in accordance with the described techniques.

FIG. 4 depicts an example 400 of a combined listing of a physical itemand a digital twin NET in accordance with the described techniques.

FIG. 5 depicts a procedure in an example implementation offingerprinting physical items to mint NFTs.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system including various componentsof an example device that can be implemented as any type of computingdevice as described and/or utilized with reference to FIGS. 1-5 toimplement embodiments of the techniques described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Conventional platforms for transferring ownership of NFTs do not enablea user to generate a combined listing that includes both a physical itemand a digital twin NFT of the physical item. One reason for this is thatconventional processes make it difficult to verify that the physicalitem is authentic such that a user who wishes to obtain both thephysical item and the digital twin NET will trust that the physical itemis authentic.

To solve these problems, fingerprinting physical items to mint NFTs isdescribed. The described techniques streamline authentication of aphysical item via a user's personal computing device rather thanrequiring the user to physically send the physical item to a physicalauthentication service. To do so, the system outputs a fingerprintinginterface at a client device. The fingerprinting interface providesinstructions to capture features of a physical item in order to generatea unique fingerprint. As an example, the fingerprinting interface mayoutput textual instructions as part of a graphical user interface whichdescribe how the user is to utilize a fingerprint capture device inorder to capture features of the physical item. Alternately oradditionally, the instructions may be output as audio prompts whichdirect the user to capture the features of the physical item using thefingerprint capture device. Next, the fingerprint capture devicecaptures features of the physical item based on the instructionsprovided by the fingerprinting interface. By way of example, thefingerprint capture device may be implemented as a high-resolutioncamera which captures high-resolution image features of the physicalitem.

A fingerprint which uniquely identifies the physical item is generatedusing the captured features. The fingerprint is then provided to anauthentication service to verify that the physical item corresponds tothe authentic physical item. To do so, the authentication servicematches the fingerprint of the physical item to distinguishing featuresof the authentic physical item. For example, if the physical item is aluxury watch, then the authentication service verifies that the luxurywatch is authentic by comparing the fingerprint to known features of theluxury watch.

If the physical item is determined to be authentic, then the systeminitiates the minting of a digital twin NFT on a blockchain. The mintingprogrammatically encodes an association of metadata with the digitaltwin NET. The metadata includes the fingerprint of the physical item,and can also include other digital content of the physical item, e.g.,image(s) of the physical item, a description of the physical item, acondition of the physical item, and so forth. Notably, the condition ofthe physical item may change over time, whereas the fingerprint of thephysical item is unique to the physical item itself and will not changeeven if the physical item suffers wear and tear or is damaged. In somecases, the metadata may also include an indication that the physicalitem has been verified as being authentic by the authentication service.

The combined listing, which includes both the physical item and thedigital twin NFT, is then generated on a listing platform such thatother users may obtain the physical item and the digital twin NFT, e.g.,in exchange for a specified amount of cryptocurrency. Notably, a userthat obtains the physical item and digital twin NET of the combinedlisting may utilize a similar authentication process of fingerprintingthe physical item and confirming its authenticity by comparing thefingerprint to the fingerprint associated with the digital twin NFT.

In the following discussion, an exemplary environment is first describedthat may employ the techniques described herein. Examples ofimplementation details and procedures are then described which may beperformed in the exemplary environment as well as other environments.Performance of the exemplary procedures is not limited to the exemplaryenvironment and the exemplary environment is not limited to performanceof the exemplary procedures.

Example of an Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment 100 in an exampleimplementation that is operable to employ techniques described herein.The environment 100 includes a blockchain system 102, a service providersystem 104, and a plurality of client devices (represented in theenvironment 100 by client device 106 and client device 108) that arecommunicatively coupled, one to another, via a network 110.

Computing devices that implement the environment 100 are configurable ina variety of ways. A computing device, for instance, is configurable asa desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobile device (e.g., assuming ahandheld configuration such as a tablet or mobile phone), an IoT device,a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch), an AR/VR device, a server, andso forth. Thus, a computing device ranges from full resource deviceswith substantial memory and processor resources to low-resource deviceswith limited memory and/or processing resources. Additionally, althoughin instances in the following discussion reference is made to acomputing device in the singular, a computing device is alsorepresentative of a plurality of different devices, such as multipleservers of a server farm utilized to perform operations “over the cloud”as further described in relation to FIG. 6 .

In accordance with the described techniques, the blockchain system 102is implemented by a node 112 of a network 114 (e.g., a distributednetwork) of the nodes 112. Each of the nodes 112 is a runtimeimplemented using processing, memory, and network resources ofrespective computing devices that operate as the infrastructure of ablockchain 116. Here, the blockchain system 102 is illustrated includingblockchain manager 118 and storage 120, the storage 120 being an exampleof a computing resource leveraged to implement the node 112. Theblockchain system 102 also includes other resources of the one or morerespective computing devices made available for operating as the node112. Broadly, the blockchain manager 118 is configured to leverage thoseresources to implement the node 112 on behalf of the one or morecomputing devices.

By way of example, the blockchain manager 118 manages the storage 120 ofthe one or more computing devices implementing the node 112, such as bycausing a copy of the blockchain 116 to be maintained in the storage120. The copy of the blockchain 116 stored at the storage 120 may be apartial or full copy of the blockchain 116, depending on one or morecharacteristics of the node 112 (e.g., a type) and/or a time (e.g.,whether updates have been made to the blockchain 116 via other nodes 112in the network 114). The blockchain manager 118 may manage otherresources of those computing devices in connection with operation of theblockchain 116, such as memory and processors of those devices toperform computations (e.g., transaction validation), operating systemsof those devices, and network connections of those devices (e.g., tocommit changes to the blockchain 116 and to receive updates to the node112's copy of the blockchain), to name just a few. In short, the nodes112 store, communicate, process, and manage data that makes up theblockchain 116. As illustrated in FIG. 1 , the nodes 112 areinterconnected to exchange data via the network 110, e.g., as apeer-to-peer network in a distributed and decentralized manner.

Broadly speaking, the blockchain 116 is formed using a plurality ofblocks 122, illustrated in FIG. 1 as including a respective hash 124 andtransaction data 126. The transaction data 126 of the blocks 122includes batches of validated transactions that are hashed and encoded.Each of the blocks 122 includes the hash 124, which is a cryptographichash of a previous block 122 in the blockchain 116, thereby linking theblocks 122 to each other to form the blockchain 116. As a result, theblocks 122 cannot be altered retroactively without altering eachsubsequent block 122 in the blockchain 116 and in this way protectingagainst attacks by malicious parties. In order to publish the blocks 122for addition to the blockchain 116, a node 112 may be implemented as a“miner” to add a block of transactions to the blockchain 116. In one ormore implementations, other nodes may communicate transactions receivedat those nodes to one or more mining nodes for validation. Mining nodesmay perform peer-to-peer computations to check if transactions intendedfor the blockchain 116 are valid and, if validated, may add validatedtransactions to a block 122 that those nodes are building. If thetransactions are determined to be valid, for instance, then thetransaction data 126 describing those transactions is encoded in orotherwise stored on a respective block 122, which is linked to theblockchain 116 such that the new block is “at the end” or “at the top”of the blockchain 116, e.g., through inclusion of the hash 124 of aprevious block in the chain.

The nodes 112 then broadcast this transaction history via the network110 for sharing with other nodes 112. This acts to synchronize theblocks 122 of the blockchain 116 across the distributed architecture ofcomputing devices. A variety of “types” of nodes 112 may be used toimplement the blockchain 116. By way of example, the blockchain 116 maybe implemented at least in part using “full” nodes, which are nodes thatstore an entirety of the blockchain 116, e.g., locally incomputer-readable storage media of respective computing devices of thenodes 112. Other types of nodes may also be employed to implementadditional functionality to govern voting events, execution of protocoloperations, rules enforcement, and so forth.

The blockchain 116 may be leveraged to provide a diverse range offunctionality. Due in part to the distributed storage and updating ofthe blockchain 116 over the network 114 of nodes 112, the blockchain 116may store its data in a decentralized manner, without a centralizeddatabase (e.g., run by a clearinghouse), and thus operate as adistributed ledger. The decentralized storage of the blockchain 116overcomes one of the major disadvantages of centralized storage, whichis that centralized storage essentially has a single point of failure.It is to be appreciated that in one or more implementations, theblockchain 116 may be public (e.g., like Ethereum and Bitcoinblockchains), such that transactions on the blockchain 116 are generallyviewable with a connection to the Internet. Alternatively, theblockchain 116 may be configured as a private blockchain, in one or moreimplementations. When the blockchain 116 is a “private” blockchain, thecomputing devices used to implement the nodes 112 may be controlled by acentralized authority, such as a company or a consortium of entities.

As a distributed ledger, the blockchain 116 supports the secure transferof digital assets, such as the transfer of a cryptocurrency and/ortokens. Broadly speaking, cryptocurrencies (e.g., coins of thecryptocurrency) are the native assets to blockchains, whereas tokens arecreated “on top” of these blockchains. Tokens may be created “on top” ofthe blockchain 116 by using a “token standard” which allows the token tointeroperate with the blockchain 116's network of nodes 112 according toone or more protocols of the blockchain, such that the transaction data126 and the hashes 124 of the blocks 122 are leveraged to create, trade,and update tokens. By way of example, the Ethereum blockchain's nativeasset is ether (ETH), a cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, tokens may becreated on top of Ethereum's blockchain by using one or more ofEthereum's token standards for creating tokens, such as by using ERC-20,ERC-721, ERC-1155, and EIP-2309, to name just a few.

Regardless of the particular blockchain protocol(s) and features used,the tokens created on top of the blockchain 116 may be “programmable,”meaning that they run on software protocols and can be configured toinclude logic executed by computing resources (e.g., of the nodes 112).This enables the tokens to implement smart contracts that defineconditions for the token and the network 114's rules of engagement.Broadly, a “smart contract” is self-executing code that carries out aset of instructions in accordance with terms of the contract, and thiscarrying out of the set of instructions is then validated by theblockchain 116. For instance, the self-executed code is sent to anaddress on the blockchain 116 as a blockchain transaction and, at theaddress, the code sent is validated, e.g., by a consensus mechanism ofthe blockchain 116. Once validated, this transaction may be included ina block 122, such that the smart contract is initiated and irrevocable.

In addition or alternatively, tokens, implemented according to a tokenstandard (e.g., ERC-721 or ERC-1155) and by leveraging the architectureand protocols of the blockchain 116, can be programmatically encoded asnon-fungible assets that are individually unique and cannot be directlyinterchanged with other similar tokens “like-for-like”. In accordancewith the described techniques, for instance, the architecture andprotocols of the blockchain 116 can be leveraged to create non-fungibletokens (NFTs) on the blockchain 116. By using the transaction validationcarried out by the nodes 112, the blockchain 116 certifies that a givenNFT is digitally unique and thus not interchangeable with other NFTs.When an NET is minted (i.e., programmatically brought into existence),the blockchain 116's protocols generate a unique token identifier thatis encoded in the NFT—the unique identifier may be generated using oneor more randomization approaches. As used herein, the term“non-fungible” refers to the property of a token to uniquely representan asset, such that a digital signature of the token represents theunderlying asset in a way that is not directly interchangeable with(e.g., “like-for-like”), or equal to, any other tokens. This contrastswith cryptocurrencies, which are “fungible” because two coins of a samecryptocurrency (e.g., two Ether or two Bitcoins) can be traded orexchanged for one another and are of equal value.

Instead, each NFT is programmatically created to include a unique,non-transferable identity which distinguishes it from other NFTs. In oneor more implementations, an NET may encode underlying digital content,e.g., underlying digital art, an image, music, a video, in-game content,text (e.g., a story or writing), a composition of multiple types ofdigital media, a file, or a 3D-model, to name just a few. Alternativelyor additionally, an NET may encode an association with or to the digitalcontent, e.g., a uniform resource locator (URL) or other locationinformation that describes a location where the digital content and/ordata about the digital content is stored. In one or more examples, forinstance, rather than encoding the digital content for storage in theNFT, the digital content may be stored in third-party storage, e.g.,storage of the service provider system 104 or storage of another serviceprovider. As discussed above and below, an NET created and maintained onthe blockchain 116 is configured to encode other information in additionto underlying digital content, or an association with the underlyingdigital content.

In accordance with the described techniques, the service provider system104 includes a variety of functionality for creating NFTs and executingtransactions involving NFTs, e.g., listing NFTs for sale, purchasingNFTs, easily creating smart contracts with different terms (e.g.,royalties and/or fractional ownership structures and rules) to governtransactions involving an NFT, initiating execution of smart contractsencoded by NFTs, and so forth. As illustrated herein, the serviceprovider system 104 includes a minting system 128, a fingerprint capturesystem 130, an authentication service system 132, and listing platform134. The authentication service system 132 is depicted having storage136 which stores distinguishing feature data 138, which theauthentication service system 132 uses to authenticate physical items,including physical items for which digital twinned NFTs are created asdiscussed above and below.

It is to be appreciated that the service provider system 104 may includemore, fewer, and/or different components than illustrated withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the described techniques.Additionally, portions or entireties of one or more of the componentsmay be implemented at client devices, such as part of applications atthe client device 106 and/or the client device 108. For instance, atleast a portion of the fingerprint capture system 130 (or the otherillustrated components) may be implemented at the client devices 106,108, e.g., as at least part of an application, as a plug-in, via a webpage output (e.g., displayed) by the client devices, and so on.

The illustrated environment 100 also includes physical storage vault140, which may be utilized in one or more implementations, e.g., tostore physical items having digital twinned NFTs for safe keeping. Thephysical storage vault 140 may be included as part of the serviceprovider system 104 or may be controlled by a third party and simplyassociated with or otherwise accessible to the service provider system104.

To enable respective users to initiate operations to create NFTs and toperform transactions involving NFTs, the client device 106 and theclient device 108 include components to interact within the environment100. The client device 106 is illustrated including application 142(e.g., a computer application) and storage 144, which is depictedstoring digital wallet 146. The client device 108 is illustratedincluding application 148 (e.g., a computer application) and storage150, which is depicted storing digital wallet 152. The applications 142,148 may be configured in a variety of ways in accordance with thedescribed techniques. For example, the applications 142, 148 may bemobile applications, plug-ins, or web-browsers to access web pagesproviding NFT-based services, to name just a few. The applications 142,148 may be separate installations of a same application, e.g., a mobileapplication of the service provider system 104. Alternatively oradditionally, the applications 142, 148 may correspond to a digitalwallet service provider (not shown), which provides respective digitalwallets 146, 152. Alternatively or in addition, the digital wallets 146,152 may be accessible to the respective applications 142, 148, e.g., viaan application programming interface (API), to carry out operationsinvolving NFTs on the blockchain 116.

By way of example, the respective applications 142, 148 may receive userinput via a user interface to initiate ownership transfer of an NET froma user associated with the client device 106 to a user associated withthe client device 108, e.g., by transferring the NFT from the digitalwallet 146 to the digital wallet 152. The digital wallets 146, 152 maystore public and private cryptographic keys that are used to digitallylink transactions on the blockchain 116 to user accounts correspondingto the wallets. Generally, the information stored on the wallets maypoint to assets' locations in terms of blocks on the blockchain andthere is a unique cryptographic address issued by a wallet, such thatthe transaction data 126 encodes wallet addresses of parties to thetransaction.

Returning to the components of the service provider system 104, theminting system 128 is configured to “mint” NFTs. To mint an NFT, theminting system 128 causes the NFT to be created on the blockchain 116and programmatically encodes an association of metadata with the NFT. Inaccordance with the described techniques, for example, the mintingsystem 128 is configured to mint digital twin NFTs of physical items.The metadata for a digital twin NFT may include a fingerprint of thephysical item (e.g., a high-resolution image of one or more features ofthe item, a LIDAR scan of the physical item, etc.) and digital contentof the physical item (e.g., an image of the physical item forpresentation, a video of the physical item, and/or a 3D model of thephysical item). The metadata may also include other information, such asa description of the item, a condition of the physical item (which canchange over time), an indication that the physical item is an authenticphysical item, an indication that the physical item is not an authenticphysical item, a physical location where the item was minted (e.g., at aresidence, at a location corresponding to a facility of the serviceprovider system, at an event such as a concert or sporting event, and soon), locations of transactions involving the physical item, publicaddresses of wallets of owners of the NET, and/or a current location ofthe physical item, to name just a few

The minting system 128 may encode an association of this metadata withthe digital twin NET by, for example, encoding the actual data (e.g.,the unique fingerprint and/or the digital content) in the digital twinNFT, encoding unique identifiers of the actual data in the digital twinNET, and/or encoding one or more addresses where such data is located(e.g., a storage location) in the digital twin NET. In operation, theminting system 128 provides data as specified by a token standardassociated with the blockchain 116 to one or more of the nodes 112 tomint a new digital twin NFT of a physical item. For example, the mintingsystem 128 packages and communicates the actual metadata to be encodedand/or packages and communicates the association (e.g., identifierand/or addresses) to be encoded according to the token standard to theone or more nodes 112.

The fingerprint capture system 130 is configured to generate digitalfingerprints of physical items that uniquely identify a given physicalitem from other physical items. The fingerprint capture system 130generates those fingerprints based on captured features of the physicalitems, such as features captured using sensors of one or more devices.As discussed below, the features may be captured using one or moresensors of client devices (e.g., the client devices 106, 108), one ormore sensors of the fingerprint capture system 130 (e.g., whenconfigured with hardware to capture the features of physical devices),and/or sensors of other devices. By way of example, the client devicesand/or the fingerprint capture system 130 may include a high-resolutiondigital camera to capture high-resolution digital image features ofphysical items.

The authentication service system 132 is configured to verify whether aphysical item corresponds to an authentic physical item. Theauthentication service system 132 may verify whether a physical itemcorresponds to an authentic physical item by matching the fingerprint ofa physical item, as generated by the fingerprint capture system 130, todistinguishing feature data 138 of a known authentic physical item. Theauthentication service system 132 may do so by comparing a fingerprint,or captured features encoded in the fingerprint, to portions of thedistinguishing feature data 138, e.g., searching the distinguishingfeature data 138 for data having at least a threshold similarity to thefingerprint or portions of the fingerprint. The authentication servicesystem 132 may then return a response indicating that a physical item isor is not an authentic physical item (or is unsure whether the physicalitem is or is not authentic) based on whether the fingerprint matchesany of the distinguishing feature data 138.

The listing platform 134 is configured to generate listings for itemsand to expose those listings (e.g., publish them) to one or more clientdevices. For example, the listing platform 134 may generate listings foritems for sale and expose those listings to client devices, such thatthe users of the client devices can interact with the listings via userinterfaces to initiate transactions (e.g., purchases, add to wish lists,share, and so on) in relation to the respective item or items of thelistings. In accordance with the described techniques, the listingplatform 134 is configured to generate listings for physical items orproperty (e.g., collectibles, luxury items, clothing, electronics, realproperty, physical computer-readable storage having one or more videogames stored thereon, and so on), services (e.g., babysitting, dogwalking, house cleaning, and so on), digital items (e.g., digitalimages, digital music, digital videos) that can be downloaded via thenetwork 110, and NFTs, to name just a few. Notably, the listing platform134 is configured to generate a combined listing that includes both aphysical item and a digital twin NET of the physical item. The listingplatform 134 may generate the combined listing, which lists both thephysical item and the digital twin NET, based on user input receivedfrom a client device associated with a user account (e.g., of thelisting platform 134) and received via a user interface to generate thecombined listing. For example, the service provider system 104 mayinitiate the minting of a digital twin NFT of a physical item andinitiate the listing of both the physical item and the digital twin NFTresponsive to receiving such user input via a user interface of theapplication 142, 148, as output at the client device 106 or the clientdevice 108.

Optionally, the service provider system 104 may store physical items atthe physical storage vault 140, such as valuable physical items havingdigital twin NFTs. Storage of the underlying physical item at thephysical storage vault 140 allows ownership of the digital twin NFT andthe physical item to be easily transferred between owners without thehassle of physically moving the item to transfer possession, e.g.,shipping the item or exchanging it between hands. Instead, the item maybe transferred to the physical storage vault 140 for storage and remainin the physical storage vault 140 while ownership of the physical itemand/or its digital twin NET is transferred a number of times. Thephysical storage vault 140 may also maintain physical items whereownership is divided, using a digital twin NET, into a number offractions of ownership of the physical item, e.g., “shares” of thephysical item issued according to terms of the digital twin NET.

Having considered an example of an environment, consider now adiscussion of some examples of details of the techniques forfingerprinting physical items to mint NFTs in accordance with one ormore implementations.

Fingerprinting of Physical Items to Mint NFTs

FIG. 2 depicts an example 200 of a system to fingerprint physical itemsto mint NFTs. The illustrated example 200 includes from FIG. 1 thefingerprint capture system 130, the authentication service system 132,the minting system 128, and the listing platform 134. The illustratedexample 200 also includes the blockchain 116. In this example 200, thefingerprint capture system 130 is depicted obtaining sensor-capturedfeatures 202 of physical item 204. In accordance with the describedtechniques the sensor-captured features 202 correspond to datadescribing one or more aspects of the physical item 204 and may includevarious information captured about the physical item 204, e.g., usingsensors of one or more devices. For instance, this information may begenerated about the physical item 204 using one or more sensors of theclient device 106, the client device 108, and/or one or more sensors ofthe fingerprint capture system 130 when the fingerprint capture system130 includes sensors to capture features of physical items.

By way of example, the fingerprint capture system 130 may be implementedat least partially at a client device (e.g., a client device 106, 108)having the one or more sensors. Alternatively or in addition, thefingerprint capture system 130 may be configured as or include areceptable into which, or a platform onto which, physical items may beplaced so that sensors of the fingerprint capture system 130 can scanthe item to generate the sensor-captured features 202.

Examples of sensors that may be used to generate the sensor-capturedfeatures 202 include, but are not limited to, imaging sensors (e.g., oneor more high-resolution digital cameras, one or more low-resolutiondigital cameras), temperature sensors, LIDAR, biochemical sensors, andso on. Examples of the sensor-captured features 202 may include, but arenot limited to, images (e.g., high-resolution images of the physicalitem 204's features), videos of the physical item 204, data derived fromvarious electromagnetic spectrum features captured by the sensors aboutthe physical item 204, measured temperatures at different locations ofthe physical item 204 (or a map of them), a LIDAR scan of the physicalitem 204, or measurements (or estimated values) of one or more elementsor compounds at different locations of the physical item 204, to namejust a few. It is to be appreciated that the sensor-captured features202 may be produced by a variety of sensors of different devices anddescribe a variety of features about the physical item 204 withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the techniques described herein.

Based on the sensor-captured features 202, the fingerprint capturesystem 130 generates a fingerprint 206 of the physical item 204. Thefingerprint 206 is unique to the physical item 204 and may be used touniquely identify the physical item 204 from other physical items,including from another specimen of the same item (e.g., two luxurywatches of the same brand, make, model, etc.). For example, thefingerprint 206 may be configured as a unique digital signature thatidentifies the physical item 204 from other physical items. Notably, thefingerprint capture system 130 can generate the fingerprint 206 todigitally encode the sensor-captured features 202 of the physical item204 at various points in time after manufacture of the physical item204. In other words, the fingerprint capture system 130 is not relianton the manufacturing process to generate the fingerprint 206 so that ituniquely identifies the physical item 204. In this way, the fingerprintcapture system 130 is configured to generate the fingerprint 206 withoutmodifying the physical item 204. This contrasts with techniques thatrely on an identifier to be manufactured into or otherwise incorporatedwith the physical item 204, examples of which include configuring aphysical item with an RFID tag and/or applying (e.g., stitching in orprinting) an identifier to the physical item. In accordance with thedescribed techniques, the authentication service system 132 isconfigured to authenticate the physical item 204 based on thefingerprint 206. Here, the authentication service system 132 is depictedobtaining the fingerprint 206 from the fingerprint capture system 130.The fingerprint capture system 130 may transmit the fingerprint 206 tothe authentication service system 132 for authentication, in accordancewith the described techniques. As noted above, for instance, thefingerprint capture system 130 may be implemented at least in part at aclient device, e.g., as part of the application 142 at the client device106 and/or as part of the application 148 at the client device 108.Thus, one of the client devices 106, 108 may transmit the fingerprint206 to the authentication service system 132 over the network 110.

Broadly, the authentication service system 132 verifies that thephysical item 204 corresponds to an authentic physical item. To do so,the authentication service system 132 compares the fingerprint 206 tothe distinguishing feature data 138 stored in the storage 136. Thedistinguishing feature data 138 describes features of one or morephysical items that are known to be authentic and is saved in thestorage 136. The authentication service system 132 is capable through acomputerized comparison of the digital fingerprint 206 and thedistinguishing feature data 138 of identifying those authentic itemsand/or differentiating them from items that are not authentic (e.g.,knockoffs). Some of the comparison techniques used by the authenticationservice system 132 may not be possible by humans because humans do nothave the sensory capacity to detect one or more of the same featuresand/or compare digital fingerprints to the distinguishing feature data138 at the level required to identify a physical item as authentic.

If the authentication service system 132 determines that there is amatch between the fingerprint 206 and the distinguishing feature data138, then the authentication service system 132 determines that thephysical item 204 is an authentic physical item. If the authenticationservice system 132 does not determine that there is a match between thefingerprint 206 and the distinguishing feature data 138, however, thenthe authentication service system 132 may determine that the physicalitem 204 is not an authentic physical item. In one or moreimplementations, the authentication service system 132 may determinethat there is a match between the fingerprint 206 and the distinguishingfeature data 138 based on identifying a threshold similarity between thefingerprint 206 and the respective distinguishing feature data 138. Inthis way, a physical item that is not identical to a known authenticitem, but is “close enough” to have a high likelihood of beingauthentic, may be determined authentic by the authentication servicesystem 132, such that the physical item 204 is considered a “match” toauthentic physical items.

Based on matching the fingerprint 206 to data in the distinguishingfeature data 138, the authentication service system 132 provides anauthentic response 208, indicating that the physical item 204 is anauthentic physical item. In the illustrated example 200, for instance,the authentication service system 132 communicates the authenticresponse 208 to the fingerprint capture system 130, although it is to beappreciated that the authentic response 208 may be communicated to andthus received by the service provider system 104 and any modulesthereof. In the scenario where the authentication service system 132does not find a suitable match between the fingerprint 206 and thedistinguishing feature data 138, the authentication service system 132may determine that the physical item 204 is not authentic and maycommunicate a response indicating that the physical item 204 is notauthentic, e.g., to the fingerprint capture system 130 or to anothercomponent.

The minting system 128 obtains the fingerprint 206, such as from thefingerprint capture system 130 as depicted. Receipt of the fingerprint206 by the minting system 128 may be responsive to the authenticresponse 208 indicating that the physical item 204 is an authenticphysical item. In one or more scenarios, however, the minting system 128may receive the fingerprint 206 for an item that is determined not to beauthentic by the authentication service system 132.

Regardless, the minting system 128 is configured to cause a digital twinNFT 210 of the physical item 204 to be minted on the blockchain 116. Todo so, the minting system 128 may provide NET minting instructions 212,e.g., to one or more of the nodes 112 in the network 114 of nodes. TheNFT minting instructions 212 may be configured according to and includedata specified by a token standard, e.g., ERC-721 or ERC-1155, forcreating the digital twin NFT 210. Once created, the digital twin NFT210 has a unique token identifier that uniquely identifies the tokenfrom other tokens—the token identifier may be a uint 256 variable, forinstance. In accordance with the described techniques, the informationincluded in the NFT minting instructions 212 enables a node 112 toprogrammatically encode in the digital twin NFT 210 information providedor indicated in the NFT minting instructions 212. For example, the NFTminting instructions 212 may include an association with metadata, suchas an association with the fingerprint 206 and physical item digitalcontent 214. The node 112 receiving those instructions may thus encodethe association with the metadata into the digital twin NFT 210.

Here, the digital twin NFT 210 is depicted including the fingerprint 206and the physical item digital content 214. It is to be appreciated thatin one or more implementations, however, the digital twin NFT 210 mayinclude references to the fingerprint 206 and the physical item digitalcontent 214 instead of the actual content. Such references may beconfigured as pointers to the actual content (e.g., URLs or storagelocations) and/or unique identifiers (e.g., GUID) of the actual content.By encoding associations with the actual content rather than encodingthe actual digital content (e.g., the fingerprint 206 and/or thephysical item digital content 214), the minting system 128 may limit theuse of hardware resources (e.g., processing) of the nodes 112 forminting the digital twin NFT 210. By limiting an amount of resourcesused, the minting system 128 may proportionally reduce a “gas” feerequired by the blockchain 116 to utilize those resources and mint thedigital twin NET 210.

As noted above, the digital twin NET 210 may also programmaticallyencode other information. For example, the digital twin NFT 210 mayprogrammatically encode a public address of a digital wallet of a userassociated with minting the NET, e.g., a public address of the digitalwallet 146 in a scenario where a user associated with the client device106 provides user input via a user interface to mint the digital twinNFT 210. The digital twin NET 210 may also be configured to digitallyrecord a provenance of the NFT, such that ownership information iscaptured each time the digital twin NFT 210 is transferred (in whole orin part). For example, if the minting user transfers the digital twinNFT 210 to a new user, then the transfer from the wallet address of theminting user to a wallet address of the new user is recorded in thedigital twin NFT 210's data on the blockchain 116. As with othertransactions on the blockchain 116, one or more of the nodes 112validates such a transfer so that only valid transfers are committed tothe blockchain 116.

The digital twin NFT 210 may be minted to encode other data, examples ofwhich include smart contracts (e.g., to govern royalties, fractionalownership processes and events, end-of-life of the NFT events, and soforth), description of other aspects of the physical item 204 (e.g., acondition of the physical item 204, provenance of different parts of thephysical item 204, maintenance record of the physical item 204, and soforth). The digital twin NET 210 may also be minted to encode variousmetadata, such as a description of the physical item 204, a condition ofthe physical item 204 (which can change over time), an indication thatthe physical item 204 is an authentic physical item, an indication thatthe physical item 204 is not an authentic physical item, a physicallocation where the physical item 204 was minted (e.g., at a residence,at a location corresponding to a facility of the service providersystem, at an event such as a concert or sporting event, and so on),locations of transactions involving the physical item 204, and/or acurrent location of the physical item 204, to name just a few

With regard to a physical item's condition, the service provider system104 may be configured to determine a condition of a physical item andcapture the determined condition as a state in the digital twin NFT 210or other data associated with the physical item 204. In one or moreimplementations, the service provider system 104 may be configured todetermine a condition of the physical item 204 using the sensor-capturedfeatures 202. The service provider system 104 may further be configuredto generate or set metadata (e.g., a state) describing the determinedcondition of the physical item 204. To this end, the minting system 128may also cause an association with metadata describing the condition ofthe physical item 204 to be encoded in the digital twin NFT 210, i.e.,in addition to encoding the association with the fingerprint 206.

In this way, a condition of the physical item 204 may be encodedseparately from data that uniquely identifies the physical item 204 fromother physical items, e.g., separately from the fingerprint 206. Due tothis separate determination and encoding, the condition encoded by thedigital twin NFT 210 may change over time, but the fingerprint 206 ofthe item does not change over time. By way of example, the digital twinNFT 210 may encode an association with metadata that describes acondition of the item in terms of “new” or “used,” an amount the item isused, a relative amount of use compared to other items, an age of theitem, and/or changes to the item from one or more previous timesfeatures of the item were captured, to name just a few. Consider ascenario, after the digital twin NFT 210 is minted, in which additionalfeatures of the physical item 204 are captured e.g., by sensors of oneor more devices. The service provider system 104 is configured tocompare the newly captured features to the sensor-captured features 202used in connection with minting the digital twin NFT 210. Based on thiscomparison, the service provider system 104 may determine that thecondition of the physical item 204 has changed subsequent to minting thedigital twin NFT 210. Based on determining that the condition of thephysical item 204 has changed over time, the service provider system 104may update the metadata of the digital twin NFT 210 to indicate thechanged condition of the physical item 204. It is to be appreciated thatthe digital twin NFT 210 may encode a variety of information in relationto the physical item 204 as discussed above and below.

In this example 200, the listing platform 134 is depicted receiving NFTnotification 216. The NFT notification 216 may describe a location ofthe digital twin NFT 210 on the blockchain 116. For example, the NFTnotification 216 may include the token identifier of the digital twinNFT 210 and/or an address of a digital wallet of a current owner of thedigital twin NFT 210. Additionally or alternatively, the NFTnotification 216 may indicate that the digital twin NFT 210 is to belisted by the listing platform 134 along with the physical item 204. TheNFT notification 216 may be received responsive to receiving a userrequest to generate a combined listing for the physical item 204 and thedigital twin NFT 210. Alternatively or additionally, the NFTnotification 216 may be automatically received by the listing platform134 responsive to the digital twin NET 210 being minted on theblockchain 116.

Regardless, the listing platform 134 generates a combined listing 218,which lists both the physical item 204 and the digital twin NFT 210together. For example, the combined listing 218 may list the combinationof the physical item 204 and the digital twin NET 210 for sale togethervia the listing platform 134. In the illustrated example 200 the listingplatform 134 is depicted outputting the combined listing 218. Thisoutput of the combined listing 218 may correspond to publishing thecombined listing 218 to one or more client devices, e.g., associatedwith user accounts of the service provider system 104 or that navigateto user interfaces of the service provider system 104. By way ofexample, the combined listing 218 may be displayed or otherwise outputby a web application (e.g., the application 142 or the application 148)via a user interface at the client devices 106, 108. In one or moreimplementations, the listing platform 134 may expose the combinedlisting 218 to a plurality of client devices, such that users navigatingto the listing or searching for listings can view the combined listing218.

In the context of example user interfaces for minting a digital twin NFTof a physical item and listing the physical item and the digital twinNFT in a combined listing, consider the following discussion.

FIGS. 3A-3H depict an example 300 of various user interfaces output inan example scenario of fingerprinting a physical item to mint a digitaltwin NET in accordance with the described techniques.

Beginning at FIG. 3A, the illustrated example 300 depicts a userinterface 302 displayed on a display device of the client device 106.The user interface 302 includes information 304 indicating that the usercan “create a combined listing that includes both a physical item and adigital twin NET of the physical item”. The user interface 302 alsoincludes a selectable element 306 which can be selected by the user tobegin the process of generating the combined listing for a physicalitem. The user interface 302 may correspond to a user interface of theservice provider system 104 that is associated with the listing platform134, such as a user interface displayed by a corresponding application142 via a display device of the client device 106. The application 142may be configured in a variety of ways in accordance with the describedtechniques. For example, the application 142 may be a mobileapplication, plug-in, or web-browser, to name just a few. Here, the userinterface 302 also includes a user account identifier 308 whichindicates that the user “@giannis” is signed into a user accountassociated with the service provider system 104.

FIGS. 3B-3F depict the user interface 302 displaying various screens andelements as part of generating a unique fingerprint for the physicalitem based on features of the physical item which are captured using oneor more sensors of the client device 106. These screens may bepresented, for example, responsive to the user selecting the selectableelement 306 to begin the process of generating the combined listing forthe physical item. In example 300, the physical item is depicted as aluxury watch and the client device 106 is depicted as capturinghigh-definition images of the luxury watch using one or more imagingsensors of the client device 106. However, as described throughout,different types of sensors may be used in place of, or in combinationwith the imaging sensors, to capture features of the physical item,including temperature sensors, LIDAR, and biochemical sensors, to namejust a few.

At FIG. 3B, the user interface 302 displays information 310 indicatingthat a unique fingerprint of the physical item can be generated usingthe client device 106. The user interface 302 also includes a selectableelement 312 which can be selected by the user to begin the process ofgenerating the fingerprint for the physical item using client device106. Responsive to selection of the selectable element 312, the userinterface 302 displays instructions 314 for capturing one or morefeatures of the physical item, as depicted in FIG. 3C. Generally, theinstructions describe how the user is to control the client device 106in order to capture features of the physical item. In this example, theinstructions 314 are textual instructions which describe how the user isto utilize the imaging sensors of the client device 106 in order tocapture features of the physical item. By way of example, instructions314 instruct the user to “place the item on a flat, well-lit surface”and to “scan the item” using the one or more imaging sensors of theclient device 106. FIG. 3C further includes a selectable element 316that can be selected to initiate the imaging sensors of the clientdevice 106 to “scan” the physical item in order to capture features ofthe physical item.

At FIG. 3D, the user interface 302 is depicted as displaying an imagingsensor viewport 318 for aligning the one or more imaging sensors of theclient device 106 to capture features of the physical item. In thisexample, an image 320 of the physical item is shown within the imagingsensor viewport 318 which indicates that the physical item, depicted asa luxury watch, is aligned within the field of view of the imagingsensors. The user interface 302 displays additional instructions 322 forcapturing the features of the physical item, which in this instanceinstruct the user to “move the device closer to the item”, e.g., so thatthe one or more imaging sensors is able to capture close-up images ofthe physical item. The user interface 302 is further shown as displayingfeedback information 324 which indicates that the physical item is beingscanned by the one or more imaging sensors of the client device 106.

FIG. 3E depicts the user interface 302 displaying additionalinstructions 326 for capturing features of the physical item. Theinstructions 326 instruct the user to “turn the item on its side”.Responsive to these instructions, the user can turn the luxury watch onits side so that the one or more imaging sensors can continue to captureimages of the luxury watch from a different angle. It is to beappreciated that the instructions 314, 322, and 326 are just examples ofthe types of instructions that can be displayed by the application 142in order to direct the user to utilize the client device 106 in order tocapture features of a physical item. Notably, a variety of differenttypes of instructions may be displayed by the application 142 in orderto capture features of a physical item which are usable to generate aunique fingerprint of a physical item. Generally, the types ofinstructions may also vary for different types of sensors. For example,the instructions output to capture features using an imaging sensor mayvary from the type of instructions output to capture features using atemperature sensor. Moreover, the instructions may be output in formsother than text, such as audio prompts or video instructions.

FIG. 3F depicts the user interface 302 displaying information 328indicating that the fingerprint of the physical item has beensuccessfully generated using the captured features of the physical item.For example, based on the image features of the luxury watch captured bythe one or more imaging sensors of client device 106, the fingerprintcapture system 130 generates a fingerprint of the luxury watch. Notably,the fingerprint is unique to the physical item and may be used touniquely identify the physical item from other physical items, includingfrom another specimen of the same item. For example, the fingerprint isusable to distinguish the luxury watch from other luxury watches of thesame brand, make, model, etc.

FIG. 3G depicts the user interface 302 displaying information 330indicating that the authentication service system 132 is currentlyauthenticating the user's physical item. For example, after generatingthe fingerprint, the fingerprint is provided to the authenticationservice system 132. The authentication service system 132 is configuredto authenticate the physical item based on the fingerprint. In someinstances, the fingerprint capture system 130 may transmit thefingerprint to the authentication service system 132 for authentication.As noted above, the fingerprint capture system 130 may be implemented atleast in part at a client device, e.g., as part of the application 142at the client device 106. Thus, the client device 106 may transmit thefingerprint to the authentication service system 132, e.g., over anetwork.

FIG. 3H depicts the user interface 302 displaying information 332indicating that the luxury watch has been verified by the authenticationservice system 132 as being authentic. For example, the authenticationservice system 132 verifies that the luxury watch is authentic bycomparing the fingerprint of the luxury watch to the distinguishingfeature data 138 stored in the storage 136. The distinguishing featuredata 138 describes features of items that are known to be authentic andsaved in the storage 136, and the distinguishing feature data 138 iscapable through a computerized comparison of identifying those itemsand/or differentiating those items from items that are not authentic(e.g., knock-offs). If the authentication service system 132 determinesthat there is a match between the fingerprint 206 and the distinguishingfeature data 138, then the authentication service system 132 determinesthat the luxury watch is an authentic luxury watch, and provides anauthentic response to the client device. The user interface 302 thusdisplays the information 332 based on the authentic response indicatingthat the luxury watch is authentic.

In FIG. 3H, the user interface 302 also displays a selectable element334 that is selectable to initiate minting of a digital twin NET of theluxury watch on the blockchain 116. For example, responsive to aselection of the selectable element 334, the fingerprint of the luxurywatch is provided to the minting system 128. The minting system 128 thencauses a digital twin NET of the luxury watch to be minted on theblockchain 116, as described throughout. In one or more implementations,the user interface 302 may provide one or more additional screens forcollecting additional information from the user that is usable to mintthe digital twin NET of the physical item.

FIG. 4 depicts an example 400 of a combined listing of a physical itemand a digital twin NET in accordance with the described techniques. Theillustrated example 400 includes a combined listing 402 which lists botha physical item and a digital twin NFT together. For example, thecombined listing 402 may list the combination of the physical item andthe digital twin NET for sale together via the listing platform 134. Inthis example, the combined listing 402 lists the combination of a luxurywatch and a digital twin NET of the luxury watch which is minted on theblockchain 116. Examples of generating a fingerprint for the luxurywatch and minting the digital twin NET is described above with regardsto FIGS. 3A-3H.

The listing platform 134 can output the combined listing 402, such as bypublishing the combined listing 402 to one or more client devices, e.g.,associated with user accounts of the service provider system 104 or thatnavigate to user interfaces of the service provider system 104. Thelisting platform 134 may expose the combined listing 402 to a pluralityof client devices, such that users navigating to the listing orsearching for listings can view the combined listing 402. In thisexample, the combined listing 402 is depicted as being displayed by aweb application (e.g., the application 148) via a user interface at theclient device 108. Notably, client device 108 corresponds to a differentdevice than the client device 106 which is depicted in FIGS. 3A-3H asgenerating a unique fingerprint for the luxury watch and minting thedigital twin NFT to represent that a different client device associatedwith a different user is viewing the combined listing, e.g., in order toobtain the luxury watch and the digital twin NET in exchange forcryptocurrency.

In this example, the combined listing 402 includes a combined listingtitle 404, an image 406 of the physical item, an authenticity indicator408, a price 410, a combined listing description 412, ownershipinformation 414, creator information 416, a user account identifier 418,and a selectable control 420 that is selectable to initiate the purchaseof the luxury watch and the digital twin NET.

The combined listing title 404 indicates that the combined listing 402is for both the “Luxury Watch and NFT”, and the image 406 corresponds toan image of the luxury watch. In some cases, the image 406 maycorrespond to digital content of the digital twin NET itself. Theauthenticity indicator 408 indicates that the physical item has beenverified as being authentic by the authentication service system 132.The price 410, in this example, is shown as 25 ETH which indicates thatthe user can obtain the combined listing for 25 ETH (which correspondsto $75,000 US Dollars based on a current valuation of 1 ETH being worth$3,000 US Dollars). The combined listing description 412 includes adescription of the combined listing, and can be expanded in some casesto view additional information regarding the combined listing.

In the illustrated example 400, the ownership information 414 and thecreator information 416 indicate that both the current owner and creatorof the NFT correspond to the same user profile, “@giannis”. The useraccount identifier 420 indicates that the user “@harden” is signed intoa user account associated with the service provider system 104. Notablyif the @harden user purchases both the luxury watch and the digital twinNFT of the combined listing 402, e.g., by selecting the selectablecontrol 418 and transferring 25 ETH to the @giannis user, then theownership information 414 will change to indicate that @harden is thecurrent owner of the NFT. In this scenario, however, the creatorinformation 416 will remain the same to signify that @harden is not theoriginal creator of the NET. It is to be appreciated that the combinedlisting 402 may include different elements or information withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the described techniques.

Having discussed exemplary details of the techniques for fingerprintingphysical items to mint NFTs, consider now some examples of procedures toillustrate additional aspects of the techniques.

Example Procedures

This section describes examples of procedures for fingerprintingphysical items to mint NFTs. Aspects of the procedures may beimplemented in hardware, firmware, or software, or a combinationthereof. The procedures are shown as a set of blocks that specifyoperations performed by one or more devices and are not necessarilylimited to the orders shown for performing the operations by therespective blocks.

FIG. 5 depicts a procedure 500 in an example implementation offingerprinting physical items to mint NFTs.

A request to generate a combined listing for a physical item and adigital twin NFT of the physical item is received from a client deviceassociated with a user account (block 502). In accordance with theprinciples discussed herein, the request indicates that the physicalitem corresponds to an authentic physical item. By way of example,fingerprint capture system 130 receives a request from client device 106to generate a combined listing for a physical item 204 and a digitaltwin NET of the physical item.

A fingerprinting interface is output at the client device (block 504).In accordance with the principles discussed herein, the fingerprintinginterface provides instructions for capturing one or more features ofthe physical item used to verify that the physical item corresponds tothe authentic physical item. By way of example, the fingerprint capturesystem 130 displays a user interface 302 which provides instructions(e.g., instructions 314, 322, and 326) for capturing one or morefeatures of a physical item 204.

The one or more features of the physical item are captured using afingerprint capture system of the client device according to theinstructions (block 506). By way of example, the fingerprint capturesystem 130 obtains sensor-captured features 202 according to theinstructions output in the fingerprinting interface, e.g., userinterface 302. In accordance with the described techniques thesensor-captured features 202 correspond to data describing one or moreaspects of the physical item 204 and may include various informationcaptured about the physical item 204, e.g., using sensors of one or moredevices. For instance, this information may be generated about thephysical item 204 using one or more sensors of the client device 106,the client device 108, and/or one or more sensors of the fingerprintcapture system 130 when the fingerprint capture system 130 includessensors to capture features of physical items.

Examples of sensors that may be used to generate the sensor-capturedfeatures 202 include, but are not limited to, imaging sensors (e.g., oneor more high-resolution digital cameras, one or more low-resolutiondigital cameras), temperature sensors, LIDAR, biochemical sensors, andso on. Examples of the sensor-captured features 202 may include, but arenot limited to, images (e.g., high-resolution images of the physicalitem 204's features), videos of the physical item 204, data derived fromvarious electromagnetic spectrum features captured by the sensors aboutthe physical item 204, measured temperatures at different locations ofthe physical item 204 (or a map of them), a LIDAR scan of the physicalitem 204, or measurements (or estimated values) of one or more elementsor compounds at different locations of the physical item 204, to namejust a few.

A fingerprint of the physical item is generated using captured featuresof the physical item (block 508). By way of example, based on thesensor-captured features 202, the fingerprint capture system 130generates a fingerprint 206 of the physical item 204. The fingerprint206 is unique to the physical item 204 and may be used to uniquelyidentify the physical item 204 from other physical items, including fromanother specimen of the same item (e.g., two luxury watches of the samebrand, make, model, etc.). For example, the fingerprint 206 may beconfigured as a unique digital signature that identifies the physicalitem 204 from other physical items.

The fingerprint of the physical item is transmitted to an authenticationservice via a network to verify that the physical item corresponds tothe authentic physical item by matching the fingerprint of the physicalitem to distinguishing features of the authentic physical item (block510). By way of example, the fingerprint capture system 130 provides thefingerprint 206 to the authentication service system 132 to verify thatthe physical item 204 corresponds to an authentic physical item. To doso, the authentication service system 132 compares the fingerprint 206to the distinguishing feature data 138 stored in the storage 136. Thedistinguishing feature data 138 describes features of one or morephysical items that are known to be authentic and is saved in thestorage 136. The authentication service system 132 is capable through acomputerized comparison of the digital fingerprint 206 and thedistinguishing feature data 138 of identifying those authentic itemsand/or differentiating them from items that are not authentic.

A response verifying that the physical item corresponds to the authenticphysical item is received from the authentication service via thenetwork (block 512). By way of example, if the authentication servicesystem 132 determines that there is a match between the fingerprint 206and the distinguishing feature data 138, then the authentication servicesystem 132 determines that the physical item 204 is an authenticphysical item. Based on matching the fingerprint 206 to data in thedistinguishing feature data 138, the authentication service system 132then provides an authentic response 208, indicating that the physicalitem 204 is an authentic physical item.

The digital twin NET is minted on a blockchain (block 514). Inaccordance with the principles discussed herein, the minting includescreating the digital twin NET on the blockchain and programmaticallyencoding an association of metadata that includes the matchedfingerprint and digital content of the physical item with the digitaltwin NET. By way of example, the minting system 128 obtains thefingerprint 206, and initiates minting of a digital twin NET 210 on ablockchain 116 by programmatically encoding an association of metadatathat includes the matched fingerprint 206 and digital content 214 of thephysical item with the digital twin NFT 210.

The combined listing for the physical item and the digital twin NFT isgenerated on a listing platform (block 516). By way of example, thelisting platform 134 generates a combined listing 218, which lists boththe physical item 204 and the digital twin NFT 210 together. Thecombined listing 218 may list the combination of the physical item 204and the digital twin NFT 210 for sale together via the listing platform134. The listing platform 134 can output the combined listing 218, suchas by publishing the combined listing 218 to one or more client devices,e.g., associated with user accounts of the service provider system 104or that navigate to user interfaces of the service provider system 104.By way of example, the combined listing 218 may be displayed orotherwise output by a web application (e.g., the application 142 or theapplication 148) via a user interface at the client devices 106, 108. Inone or more implementations, the listing platform 134 may expose thecombined listing 218 to a plurality of client devices, such that usersnavigating to the listing or searching for listings can view thecombined listing 218.

Having described examples of procedures in accordance with one or moreimplementations, consider now an example of a system and device that canbe utilized to implement the various techniques described herein.

Example System and Device

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system generally at 600 that includesan example of a computing device 602 that is representative of one ormore computing systems and/or devices that may implement the varioustechniques described herein. This is illustrated through inclusion ofthe digital wallet 146. The computing device 602 may be, for example, aserver of a service provider, a device associated with a client (e.g., aclient device), an on-chip system, and/or any other suitable computingdevice or computing system.

The example computing device 602 as illustrated includes a processingsystem 604, one or more computer-readable media 606, and one or more I/Ointerfaces 608 that are communicatively coupled, one to another.Although not shown, the computing device 602 may further include asystem bus or other data and command transfer system that couples thevarious components, one to another. A system bus can include any one orcombination of different bus structures, such as a memory bus or memorycontroller, a peripheral bus, a universal serial bus, and/or a processoror local bus that utilizes any of a variety of bus architectures. Avariety of other examples are also contemplated, such as control anddata lines.

The processing system 604 is representative of functionality to performone or more operations using hardware. Accordingly, the processingsystem 604 is illustrated as including hardware elements 610 that may beconfigured as processors, functional blocks, and so forth. This mayinclude implementation in hardware as an application specific integratedcircuit or other logic device formed using one or more semiconductors.The hardware elements 610 are not limited by the materials from whichthey are formed or the processing mechanisms employed therein. Forexample, processors may be comprised of semiconductor(s) and/ortransistors (e.g., electronic integrated circuits (ICs)). In such acontext, processor-executable instructions may beelectronically-executable instructions.

The computer-readable media 606 is illustrated as includingmemory/storage 612. The memory/storage 612 represents memory/storagecapacity associated with one or more computer-readable media. Thememory/storage 612 may include volatile media (such as random accessmemory (RAM)) and/or nonvolatile media (such as read only memory (ROM),Flash memory, optical disks, magnetic disks, and so forth). Thememory/storage 612 may include fixed media (e.g., RAM, ROM, a fixed harddrive, and so on) as well as removable media (e.g., Flash memory, aremovable hard drive, an optical disc, and so forth). Thecomputer-readable media 606 may be configured in a variety of other waysas further described below.

Input/output interface(s) 608 are representative of functionality toallow a user to enter commands and information to computing device 602,and also allow information to be presented to the user and/or othercomponents or devices using various input/output devices. Examples ofinput devices include a keyboard, a cursor control device (e.g., amouse), a microphone, a scanner, touch functionality (e.g., capacitiveor other sensors that are configured to detect physical touch), a camera(e.g., which may employ visible or non-visible wavelengths such asinfrared frequencies to recognize movement as gestures that do notinvolve touch), and so forth. Examples of output devices include adisplay device (e.g., a monitor or projector), speakers, a printer, anetwork card, tactile-response device, and so forth. Thus, the computingdevice 602 may be configured in a variety of ways as further describedbelow to support user interaction.

Various techniques may be described herein in the general context ofsoftware, hardware elements, or program modules. Generally, such modulesinclude routines, programs, objects, elements, components, datastructures, and so forth that perform particular tasks or implementparticular abstract data types. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and“component” as used herein generally represent software, firmware,hardware, or a combination thereof. The features of the techniquesdescribed herein are platform-independent, meaning that the techniquesmay be implemented on a variety of commercial computing platforms havinga variety of processors.

An implementation of the described modules and techniques may be storedon or transmitted across some form of computer-readable media. Thecomputer-readable media may include a variety of media that may beaccessed by the computing device 602. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer-readable media may include “computer-readablestorage media” and “computer-readable signal media.”

“Computer-readable storage media” may refer to media and/or devices thatenable persistent and/or non-transitory storage of information incontrast to mere signal transmission, carrier waves, or signals per se.Thus, computer-readable storage media refers to non-signal bearingmedia. The computer-readable storage media includes hardware such asvolatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media and/orstorage devices implemented in a method or technology suitable forstorage of information such as computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, logic elements/circuits, or other data.Examples of computer-readable storage media may include, but are notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, harddisks, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or other storage device, tangible media, orarticle of manufacture suitable to store the desired information andwhich may be accessed by a computer.

“Computer-readable signal media” may refer to a signal-bearing mediumthat is configured to transmit instructions to the hardware of thecomputing device 602, such as via a network. Signal media typically mayembody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,or other data in a modulated data signal, such as carrier waves, datasignals, or other transport mechanism. Signal media also include anyinformation delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example,and not limitation, communication media include wired media such as awired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such asacoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media.

As previously described, hardware elements 610 and computer-readablemedia 606 are representative of modules, programmable device logicand/or fixed device logic implemented in a hardware form that may beemployed in some embodiments to implement at least some aspects of thetechniques described herein, such as to perform one or moreinstructions. Hardware may include components of an integrated circuitor on-chip system, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), a complex programmable logicdevice (CPLD), and other implementations in silicon or other hardware.In this context, hardware may operate as a processing device thatperforms program tasks defined by instructions and/or logic embodied bythe hardware as well as a hardware utilized to store instructions forexecution, e.g., the computer-readable storage media describedpreviously.

Combinations of the foregoing may also be employed to implement varioustechniques described herein. Accordingly, software, hardware, orexecutable modules may be implemented as one or more instructions and/orlogic embodied on some form of computer-readable storage media and/or byone or more hardware elements 610. The computing device 602 may beconfigured to implement particular instructions and/or functionscorresponding to the software and/or hardware modules. Accordingly,implementation of a module that is executable by the computing device602 as software may be achieved at least partially in hardware, e.g.,through use of computer-readable storage media and/or hardware elements610 of the processing system 604. The instructions and/or functions maybe executable/operable by one or more articles of manufacture (forexample, one or more computing devices 602 and/or processing systems604) to implement techniques, modules, and examples described herein.The techniques described herein may be supported by variousconfigurations of the computing device 602 and are not limited to thespecific examples of the techniques described herein. This functionalitymay also be implemented all or in part through use of a distributedsystem, such as over a “cloud” 614 via a platform 616 as describedbelow.

The cloud 614 includes and/or is representative of a platform 616 forresources 618. The platform 616 abstracts underlying functionality ofhardware (e.g., servers) and software resources of the cloud 614. Theresources 618 may include applications and/or data that can be utilizedwhile computer processing is executed on servers that are remote fromthe computing device 602. Resources 618 can also include servicesprovided over the Internet and/or through a subscriber network, such asa cellular or Wi-Fi network.

The platform 616 may abstract resources and functions to connect thecomputing device 602 with other computing devices. The platform 616 mayalso serve to abstract scaling of resources to provide a correspondinglevel of scale to encountered demand for the resources 618 that areimplemented via the platform 616. Accordingly, in an interconnecteddevice embodiment, implementation of functionality described herein maybe distributed throughout the system 600. For example, the functionalitymay be implemented in part on the computing device 602 as well as viathe platform 616 that abstracts the functionality of the cloud 614.

CONCLUSION

Although the systems and techniques have been described in languagespecific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to beunderstood that the systems and techniques defined in the appendedclaims are not necessarily limited to the specific features or actsdescribed. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: generating a fingerprint ofa physical item using one or more features of the physical item capturedusing one or more sensors of a client device; verifying that thephysical item corresponds to an authentic physical item by matching thefingerprint of the physical item to distinguishing features of theauthentic physical item; minting a digital twin non-fungible token (NFT)of the physical item on a blockchain by creating the digital twin NFT onthe blockchain and programmatically encoding an association of metadatawith the digital twin NFT, the metadata including at least the matchedfingerprint and a condition of the physical item; and generating acombined listing for the physical item and the digital twin NET.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the fingerprint of the physical item isunique to the physical item and does not change over time.
 3. The methodof claim 2, wherein the condition of the physical item can change overtime.
 4. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the condition ofthe physical item is generated based on the one or more features of thephysical item.
 5. The method as described in claim 4, furthercomprising: capturing one or more additional features of the physicalitem; determining that the condition of the physical item has changedbased on a comparison of the one or more additional features to thecondition of the physical item included with the metadata of the digitaltwin NFT; and updating the metadata of the digital twin NFT with thechanged condition of the physical item.
 6. The method as described inclaim 1, wherein the one or more features of the physical item includeone or more high-resolution image features of the physical item.
 7. Themethod as described in claim 1, wherein the one or more features of thephysical item include a LIDAR scan of the physical item.
 8. The methodas described in claim 1, wherein the metadata of the digital twin NETfurther includes an indication that the physical item corresponds to theauthentic physical item.
 9. The method as described in claim 1, whereinthe metadata of the digital twin NFT further includes digital content ofthe physical item.
 10. The method as described in claim 9, wherein thedigital content of the physical item comprises at least one of an imageof the physical item, a video of the physical item, or a 3D model of thephysical item.
 11. The method as described in claim 1, wherein themetadata of the digital twin NFT further includes a location where thedigital twin NFT was minted.
 12. The method as described in claim 1,wherein the physical item comprises a used item.
 13. The method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the condition of the physical itemcomprises an indication that the physical item is new or used.
 14. Themethod as described in claim 1, wherein the condition of the physicalitem comprises an amount of time that the physical item has been used oran age of the physical item.
 15. A computing device comprising: afingerprint capture system to capture one or more features of a physicalitem; and at least a memory and a processor to perform operationscomprising: generating a fingerprint of a physical item using the one ormore features of the physical item captured using the fingerprintcapture system; verifying that the physical item corresponds to anauthentic physical item by matching the fingerprint of the physical itemto distinguishing features of the authentic physical item; minting adigital twin non-fungible token (NET) of the physical item on ablockchain by creating the digital twin NET on the blockchain andprogrammatically encoding an association of metadata with the digitaltwin NET, the metadata including at least the matched fingerprint and acondition of the physical item; and generating a combined listing forthe physical item and the digital twin NFT.
 16. The computing device asdescribed in claim 15, wherein the fingerprint capture system includes ahigh-resolution digital camera, and wherein the one or more features ofthe physical item include high-resolution image features of the physicalitem.
 17. The computing device as described in claim 15, wherein theoperations further comprise comprising outputting a fingerprintinginterface that includes instructions for capturing the one or morefeatures of the physical item, and wherein the one or more features ofthe physical item are captured using the fingerprint capture systemaccording to the instructions included in the fingerprinting interface.18. The computing device as described in claim 17, wherein theinstructions comprise textual instructions for capturing the one or morefeatures of the physical item that are displayed in the fingerprintinginterface.
 19. The computing device as described in claim 15, whereinthe condition of the physical item can change over time but thefingerprint of the physical item does not change over time.
 20. One ormore computer-readable storage devices, having instructions storedthereon that, responsive to execution by one or more processors performoperations comprising: generating a fingerprint of a physical item usingone or more features of the physical item; verifying that the physicalitem corresponds to an authentic physical item by matching thefingerprint of the physical item to distinguishing features of theauthentic physical item; minting a digital twin non-fungible token (NFT)of the physical item on a blockchain by creating the digital twin NFT onthe blockchain and programmatically encoding an association of metadatawith the digital twin NFT, the metadata including at least the matchedfingerprint and a condition of the physical item; and generating acombined listing for the physical item and the digital twin NET.